Stock futures are flat Thursday after S&P 500 suffers worst day since April: Live updates

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on July 11, 2024 in New York City. 

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

U.S. stock futures were little changed Thursday night after the S&P 500 had its worst session since April, dragged lower by investors’ rotation out of mega-cap tech stocks.

S&P 500 futures were marginally lower. Futures linked to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 futures were down by less than 0.1% each.

During the main trading session, the broad market index closed 0.88% lower, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 1.95% Both indexes broke seven-day winning streaks, and they suffered their worst day since April 30. Investors sold their Big Tech winners, pushing Nvidia lower by 5.6% and leading to a 4.1% decline for Meta Platforms. The 30-stock Dow was the outperformer among the three major averages, inching higher by 0.08%.

On a weekly basis, the Dow is also beating the other two major averages, up nearly 1%. The S&P 500 is up 0.3% through Thursday’s close, while the Nasdaq is down nearly 0.4%.

Investors’ move out of tech stocks on Thursday was spurred by a consumer price index report that showed a 0.1% monthly decline in June. Traders flocked to areas of the market that will benefit from Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, including small cap stocks. Indeed, the Russell 2000 jumped about 3.6%.

The market rotation during the session is “a taste of what’s going to happen the second half of the year,” Warren Pies, strategist and cofounder of 3Fourteen Research, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

The upcoming corporate earnings season and a credit expansion narrative will power the market to the end of the year, he added.

“We’ve had a pretty strong economy in a lot of ways over the last few years, but there are pockets that are really restrained by Fed interest rate policy,” Pies said. He noted that as central bank policymakers cut rates, corners of the economy that have been “dormant,” such as existing home sales and new auto sales, will “reawaken.”

Several financial services giants are set to report earnings Friday morning. JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and Citigroup are all scheduled to post their quarterly results before the bell.

On the economic front, traders will be looking toward June’s producer price index results. July’s preliminary consumer sentiment numbers from the University of Michigan are also due.